Electronic Music
Originally published Jan 22 to Substack Newsletter
In 1996 a 15 year old was playing punk and rock music in a band in a small town in Pennsylvania. He was a suburban, middle-class young man with a chip on his shoulder, an attitude and a rebellious nature. You have probably never heard this story before. If he wasn’t playing loud, distorted music in a leather jacket he wasn’t happy. All other genres were silly and a waste of time. The rawness of rock is where happiness and contentment lie.
For the longest time I shunned electronic music and I am not entirely sure why. Well, actually, I do know why. Even just a quick Google search for Electronic Music will transport you to EDM land and multi-colored LED laser madness.
Maybe one day I will also come to enjoy these scenes but it is not really for me. Though, that is not to say that I do not enjoy electronic music. At some point, the above imagery became the visual representation of electronic music among the masses. These images are nothing like the electronic music that I now listen to and love. What is funny is that groups like Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno or Kraftwerk were pioneering the popularization of electronic music in the 1970s and while they were all considered “odd”, they still maintained the traditional music group or artist persona.
I am not here to comment on EDM, the DJ scene or any other form of music found in the above imagery, I am just here as a once-angry punk, to say that those images do not represent all electronic music and I believe turn a lot of people off to something that if they explored might become their favorite genre. Artists like Alessandro Cortini, Nils Frahm, The Midnight, Tangerine Dream, Ben Lukas Boysen, A Winged Victory for the Sullen and so many more.
If you are interested in exploring what I mean, I stumbled onto this piece that Google put together, specifically the Google Arts and Culture group which I had no idea existed. Regardless, it is an interesting page.
Early Pioneers of Electronic Music
Start with “Says”
Alessandro Cortini - YouTube
Start with “Perdere”
The Midnight - YouTube
Start with “Memories”
The Midnight are at the forefront of Synthwave which is a genre dedicated to 80s nostalgia music and culture. Alessandro Cortini is more pure electronic instrumental music and Nils Frahm hovers in that Classical category quite a bit, though Spaces is definitely a bit more electronic and experimental. These three albums are a good cross-section of my personal taste in electronic music but there is a huge world of excellent artists out there to explore.
— Rob